The present disclosure relates to a security tag and method for creating a security tag that permanently deactivates. The permanently deactivatable security tag eliminates false alarms causing tag pollution from occurring in retail stores.
Electronic article surveillance (EAS) includes the tracking and/or detecting the presence or removal of retail items from either inventory or a retail establishment. EAS is achieved by applying, an EAS element, as part of a security tag, to the item or its packaging and when the security tags are exposed to a predetermined electromagnetic field (e.g. pedestals and/or gate located at a retail establishment exit), they activate to provide some type of alert and/or supply data to a receiver or other detector. The security tag works primarily with radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic field disturbance sensing electronic security systems.
EAS soft labels are often introduced and applied to clothing. The FAS soft label typically includes a resonant circuit with as coil coupled to a capacitor. The EAS security element is tuned to a predetermined frequency and if one attempts to remove a garment, containing, the soft label on or within, from a store, an alarm triggers as the tag passes through a surveillance field created by a transmitter, located between pedestals at the store exit, tuned to the same frequency. The alarm goes off as the EAS element resonates, providing an output signal detected by a receiver, also located in the pedestals.
When a customer purchases a garment, comprising the soft label, the soft label is deactivated at the retail counter, before the EAS tag moves through the pedestals, so as not to set off the alarm. Deactivation occurs by inducing voltage to the tag from a deactivation device so as to change and/or destroy the detection frequency resonance, such that the security tag is no longer detected as an active security tag by the security system. The voltage applied from the deactivation device induces a short about a preferred area of the capacitor plates in the EAS circuit. This in turn short's the tag's resonant circuit. As an example, tags may include a weak link created by forming a dimple in the tag which brings more closely together capacitor plates formed by the metallization of two different parts of the tag's resonant circuit located on opposite sides of the tag substrate, thereby allowing electrical breakdown at moderate power levels. Such a breakdown causes a short circuit between the two capacitors. The shorted circuit deactivates the tag, allowing the customer to move through the alarm pedestals without setting off the alarm. However, the short in the tag may only be temporary.
Often, motion and contortion of the tag may physically open the short between the capacitor plates in the tag, resulting in a reactivated resonant security tag. Often, after sale, neither the retailer nor consumer removes the soft label from within the sold garment. This is usually due to installation by a manufacturer of the tag to a garment in either a hidden or hard-to-get-to location so that potential shoplifters won't seek out the tag and remove before passing through the alarm pedestals. Wearing the garment, and thus bending or flexing the garment at or around the location of the soft tag can break and open any shorts between the capacitor plates caused by deactivation. A garment, having a reactivated tag, presents a problem for retail stores, that being the same store in which the garment was purchased or other stores, because the alarm pedestals sense the reactivated tag when the garment is introduced into the store. These reactivated tags, located in formerly bought clothing causes various false alarms, resulting in tag pollution in the store. This results in confusion for retailers and retail security over the nature of the alarm.
What is needed is a permanently deactivatable security tag and method for constructing a permanently deactivatable security tag to eliminate tag pollution, caused by for example, the reactivation of EAS soft tags and their introduction into a store. A permanently deactivatable security tag would reduce the number of false alarms. Thus, retailers and retail security might then be confidently assured that an alarm event is due to a legitimate theft taking place. Also the permanently deactivatable security tag would allow for the continued neglect by consumers and retailers in having to find and remove soft tags from clothing after purchase.